Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Things are gonna be slow(er) on the Crooked Straight this week. I'm heading to Seattle to enjoy the holiday with my folks and get some good football in tomorrow morning against all my childhood friends, who have already drafted teams.

Hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving, I'll be battling my mom to try and get her to let me watch football instead of helping out around the house like a good son would.

The Redskins remember their hard-hitting young safety every day, but here at CS we try to keep things more upbeat. However, we want to pay tribute to Sean Taylor on the one-year anniversary of his murder during a home invasion.

And how better to do that then marvel again at perhaps his most famous play ever: absolutely erasing punter Brian Moorman at the Pro Bowl, which is renowned for its half-speed, light-hitting nature. Someone forgot to tell No. 21, though. (Bonus: The Japanese play-by-play of this is off-the-scale hilarious.)

This beat goes so damn hard it puts modern rap music to shame. Pee Wee Herman could rap on this track and sound OG. Somebody put out an APB on West Coast rap ... y'all owned the world in the early 90s ... what happened?

Yes, it's another one against my Bulls, although since they won the game on a walkoff J from the Hughes Brotha, I'm not mad about it. And CJ Miles gets just as much love for the dish as Ronnie does for the cold-blooded one-handed finish.

Monday, November 24, 2008

It's always fun when a known poker pro wins a big event and today we got one of the most famous pros as a champion when Daniel Negreanu took down the B.C. Poker Championships and $371,910 in cash at the River Rock Casino in Richmond, B.C.

This is particularly convenient for Ivey, who, according to Eli Elezra, will sometimes back half the players at the table. ‘Without him backing these people, there would be no game,’ says Elezra, who’s played 40 or so times. ‘Who has that kind of money?’ Though Elezra doesn’t normally dig single-game poker, he makes an exception in this case. ‘Larry is a nice guy,’ Elezra enthuses, ‘but he plays way too many hands. That is why everyone plays with him. He’s won a million dollars a few times, but, at the end of the year he loses what he is supposed to lose.’

If you haven't heard, pioneering Michigan rapper MC Breed (born Eric Breed) died this weekend at the age of 37 at a friend's home in Ypsilanti. The cause is unknown, but he suffered from kidney failure.

If you don't know who Breed is, slap yourself. He was putting Michigan on the map - he repped Flint - for years before Eminem and Kid Rock made Detroit a trendy musical destination. Hell, he was doing collabs with 2Pac before Pac was even a household name. I got mad love for Breed for being one of the first artists - along with his crew, DFC - out of the Midwest to make a national impact.

This is his first hit, still his signature track and a first-ballot lock for the Hip Hop Hall of Fame. "And when I get my Jeep, I'm puttin' 'Breed' on the chrome ..."

Friday, November 21, 2008

Dr Pepper is making good on its promise of free soda now that the release of Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" is a reality. The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. "Chinese Democracy," infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, goes on sale Sunday.

"We never thought this day would come," Tony Jacobs, Dr Pepper's vice president of marketing, said in a statement. "But now that it's here, all we can say is: The Dr Pepper's on us." Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m., coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper's Web site. They'll be honored until Feb. 28.

When I first heard about this trade I really had no idea what the hell the Knicks were thinking but after reading a few articles about it, it makes sense.

That being said, I would hate, hate, hate (did I say HATE) to be on the Knicks right now. Management is basically stating that they are taking not just this season but the next two seasons in order to clear salaray cap room for the huge free agent off-season of 2010 when Lebron, D. Wade, Amare, and Chris Bosh will all be free agents.

The Knicks are also supposed to activate Stephon Marbury on Friday so that they can suit up eight players after they trade Randolph to either the Clips or someone else.

That leaves Chris Duhon and Wilson Chandler as their go-to players. I would favor Nate Rob over either of those choices.

On the bright side, I'm glad to see Jamal going to a possible playoff team for maybe the first time in his career. I'm sure the team will continue to struggle a bit until Montae Ellis comes back and at that point I think they'll go on a run at the playoffs. It'll be great to see a backcourt of Montae and Mal running the show, similar to watching Baron and Montae on the court at the same time.

From Jamal: "The Warriors have been one of the most entertaining and fun teams in the league the last few years, and I think my abilities are very conducive with their style and their needs."

Mal is a great dude and I'm wishing him the best in the Bay, I know he's happy to return to the West Coast.

AK47 is no longer the player he once was, when he could drop a 20-12-5-5-5 line on any given night, but he still got the sharp moves, and here Booze gladly takes the behind-the-back dime and deposits it in the bank.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

I don't know what to say about this. I'm sure Evelyn Ng is a nice person but in my opinion this episode made her look boring as hell. Not to mention her "Bodog" dress that she's rocking. I have two questions for her: (1) Why does your house have nothing personal at all in it besides one corny painting? I'm half Chinese and I've never heard that joke in my life. (2) why does she not know what is in her fridge?

I love this clip, if only for the absolute PWNAGE on display. This is the debut of the Lawson and Ellington Alley Oop School. If you can't do it right, Kentucky, Ty and Wayne will correct you. Viciously.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Gaming developer Valve has released a collector's bundle which includes the top 20 games they've published

The bundle dubbed Valve Complete Pack has classic titles such as Half Life and Counter Strike as well as recently released games like Portal, Team Fortress and the much anticipated Left 4 Dead.

The pack is being released with a price tag of $99 which considering the value of each game alone, is an awesome bargain and definitely worth checking out to add a bunch of awesome games to your collection for a reasonable price.

A pretty interesting story has developed in the poker world over the weekend as apparently poker player Clonie Gowen has brought a lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker for breach of contract.

She's basically claiming that for the past four years that she has been a sponsored Full Tilt Poker Pro, she's been doing so under the assumption that she holds a 1% ownership of Full Tilt Poker as well as Tiltware who provide FTP's software. She has promoted the website (wearing FTP patches etc.) for no other compensation besides this 1% stake of ownership.

She claims that back in May of 2007, all FTP members received distribution checks except for her. She demanded this compensation and was refused.

Then in November of 2007, Howard Lederer presumed CEO of FTP offered her $250,000, which she refused claiming she was entitled to a lot more than that.

Without coming to an agreement, she continued to represent Full Tilt Poker until November 11, 2008 when she found out FTP would be issuing a press statement claiming she was no longer a Full Tilt Pro.

And now she's filed the lawsuit under which she estimates Full Tilt Poker's value to be around 4 billion dollars, therefor she is suing the company for a whopping $40 million, her 1%.

It's definitely going to be interesting to see how this plays out. If in fact she did own 1% of the company, one would think some sort of written contract would exist, which would give her a pretty solid case.

Another point of interest is the people named as co-defendants in the lawsuit. It shines a bit of light into the ownership of the company. Names included are Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Allen Cunningham, Jennifer Harman, among many other top pros.

PokerStars top pro Daniel Negreanu has not shyed away from giving his opinion on the lawsuit. On the message boards of his website FullContactPoker.com he has expressed his outrage at what Clonie Gowen has done and strongly believes that Clonie Gowen has never owned any part of Full Tilt Poker.

"She has gone absolutely ding bat crazy and is making things up. There is no freaking way they'd offer her 1%, no freaking way. This feels more like ex-girlfriend extortion than anything else. I really hope she doesn't get away with this, luckily I don't think she will.

What an idiot. I hope she ends up with what she deserves: nothing. She's ruined herself with this move. I'll never speak to her again, and I'm sure I'm not alone.Clonie has officially lost her mind and is probably going to end up with nothing, broke, and out of poker within the next two years. It's over for her. Good riddance."

Definitely some strong words there from Kid Poker. Like I said though, it's going to be pretty interesting to see how this plays out although personally I believe this is going to end up getting settled out of court and with a nondisclosure agreement that will leaves us all simply speculating.

Monday, November 17, 2008

I like this because I can appreciate the hustle that "Clint," who apparently is fresh out of White Men Can't Jump is putting on.

This is from 2p2er ndgrinder59:

I fell for this exact bet over the summer at the bellagio (while playing 10/20 nl with him) the guys name is clint...curly haired lanky dude with braces who looks like he has no shot in hell at being good at any type of sport...long story short me and a buddy put up 5k to his 2500 that he couldn't make 70 out of 100 3-pointers in under an hour getting his own rebound and he made 70 out of 76, making the last 12 by banking it in from the only spot there was light b/c the gym closed at midnight.....KID IS UNREAL DO NOT BET WITH HIM

This may be the kid's only shot at ever being featured on DD, so we're gonna give it to him. However, this clip is more notable for Reggie Evans playing D like his shoes were tied together than for anything Bargnani did.

I have no idea what this is or why this is... is this a real movie? And if it is, why did they make it? Either way, I will be there opening night as this looks to be an epic along the lines of Star Wars, Harry Potter, and The Matrix.

The Jordan Six Rings shoe combines each of Jordan's shoes from his six championship seasons. In addition to the models that have already been released, Jordan will be releasing a colorway for each of the six teams that the Bulls beat in their championship run. This model is for the first championship in 1991 against the Los Angeles Lakers.